Game Prediction: CIN 14, BUF 20

Update: Travis Henry has returned to practice after missing last week with torn cartilage in his chest. He is listed as questionable to play this week against the Bengals but is optimistic that he will be able to play since his chest has improved. He will still be playing with pain, but appears likely to play. I am adjusting the projections accordingly.

Well that didn't take too long.

The Bengals come off their first win of the season, defeating the Browns 21-14 in Cleveland. The amusing fact is that now the Bengals are only one game out of first place in the AFC North.

Jon Kitna faced a defense that had not surrendered a passing touchdown and left town after throwing three scores. Chad Johnson (3-67, 2 TDs) only had six passes thrown to him in the game but certainly made the most of them, his second touchdown coming from 55 yards out as the defender chose the wrong moment to turn his head. Johnson leads the AFC with 370 receiving yards and his three touchdowns are only behind Marvin Harrison thanks to New Orleans.

Corey Dillon only had four carries for 20 yards before again aggravating his strained groin and being pulled from the game. It is most likely that he will be held out this week in order to fully heal up since the Bengals have their bye next week. He was replaced by Rudi Johnson who ran for 51 yards on 15 carries. The younger Johnson is a more effective runner than Brandon Bennett and will again take over the starting spot while Dillon is gone.

T.J. Houshmandzadeh has been our with a hamstring problem this season but could make an appearance in this game. Also Matt Schobel is expected to return from his hamstring strain and can face his brother, DE Aaron Schobel. The last full game that Matt played was the season opener when he had four catches for 97 yards. The Bengals consistently throw about seven passes per game to the tight end position and last week Tony Stewart (5-56) had the yards and Reggie Kelly had the touchdown on his one catch in the endzone.

The Bills have fallen to 2-2 on the season and after scoring 69 points in the first two games, the offense has only produced 20 in the past two games. Drew Bledsoe bounced back from his horrible game in Miami to throw for 296 yards and one touchdown against the Eagles. Eric Moulds led receivers with eight catches for 114 yards and Josh Reed continued to disappoint. Reed only managed one catch for nine yards while Bobby Shaw turned in a big eight catch, 92 yard effort along with the lone passing score. It was telling when Shaw, and not Reed, was in the offense and made a target when the Bills reached the goal line.

The Bills already had a rushing problem that was cloaked by several short scores by Travis Henry and now that he is out nursing a rib injury, the Bills cannot even get that much. Joe Burns covered for Henry last week and gained only 17 yards on eight carries before the Bills entirely abandoned the running game. Henry could still miss a few more games and for this week, it is assumed Burns gets the call again.

Cincinnati has been competitive in the last three games which is not something that Buffalo can also claim. This is sort of a big game in a little way. The Bengals could do wonders for their confidence by winning not only consecutive games, but consecutive road games. The Bills are certainly vulnerable now with no running game to take advantage of the only relative weakness in the Bengals defense. In the end, look for a very tight game that favors the passing of Bledsoe more than Kitna but do not be surprised when the Bengals make this a far tougher game than they would have in the past.